The present invention relates to an apparatus for transplanting seedlings of a nursery pan into beds such as vegetable beds or flower beds.
To explain the background of the invention, reference will be made to FIG. 21:
FIG. 21 is a perspective view showing a known nursery pan. As shown in FIG. 21, the nursery pan 301 includes a number of cells or pots 301a just like a honeycomb. Each pot is provided with an aperture 301b in its bottom through which the young plant sprouts. The seen pan 301 is made of natural fibers or pulp which is easy to rot under the ground. Before seeding, the pots 301b are filled with a nursery soil or foaming urethane. Then the seed pan 301 is covered by a casing, wherein each aperture 301b is directed downward as shown in FIG. 21. When young plants grow to some extent in the pots 301a, they are manually transplanted to vegetable bed or flower beds. The manual transplantation consumes time and labor, which is not suitable for mass-transplantation of vegetables and flowers.
The present invention aims at solving the problems involved in the manual transplantation of seedlings. Thus an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for automatically transplanting seedlings in vegetable beds or flower beds, thereby saving time and labor in transplanting a number of seedlings in beds.
According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for transplanting seedlings of a nursery pan into vegetable beds or flower beds as the case may be, the apparatus automatically taking up seedlings from the nursery pan individually pot by pot, and prior to implanting them, levelling a soil around the bed, digging holes in the bed to implanting the seedlings therein, and compacting the soil around the root portions of the implanted seedlings.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which show, for the purpose of illustration only, one embodiment in accordance with the present invention .